Healthy Travels

Want to enjoy the sightseeing, the company with fellow travelers, and the local cuisine while staying healthy along the way?

I found myself in this very scenario while travelling to Beijing in October 2012 (and wrote about it on my previous blog post here). Beijing is an amazing place full of countless opportunities for touring, shopping and enjoying the local food and culture. There’s the Great Wall of China, numerous palaces and tombs of emperors and empresses past, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and more. For the destinations that were nearby, the commute was swift and effortless. The destinations that were further off, however, were much more of a challenge and needed a little more attention. Add the 12 hour flights to and from Beijing, and you can really imagine what impact such a vacation could have on well-being!

Staying healthy in Beijing was easy, simple and rewarding. The key was to continue practicing my daily healthy habits and modify them to fit the circumstances. Here’s are 3 ways I stayed healthy during my week-long trip through Beijing:

Getting regular Network Spinal Care is key to having strategies to thrive in any situation.

Regular Network Spinal Care before and after the trip

Drs. Allison, Anita, and I all benefit from getting regular Network Spinal Care. Kiva Bottero, Natural News (link), calls Network Spinal Analysis (NSA) “an innovative approach to chiropractic that focuses on communicating with the nervous system in order to release the underlying tension that keeps the spine misaligned.” NSA is a powerful way for us to have a well-functioning nervous system and a body that is resilient, flexible and free to heal itself naturally (read more from our website here). During my week of travels, I still benefited from all the NSA Care that I have received. My body-mind has strategies to stay calm and connected, and to practice healthy travel habits needed by my body.

Regular yoga helped to make climbing the Great Wall much more enjoyable.

Yoga during the trip

During the trip, I practiced 15-20 minutes of yoga each morning before breakfast. I performed a short routine that includes standing postures and floor poses for strength, endurance and flexibility. Yoga is great for awakening our bodies and for preparing us for our first meal of the day. I find it always helps me clear out my lungs and airways of anything accumulated the day before. It’s also easier for me to be still physically and mentally on long bus trips after moving my joints, breathing deeply and stretching my tissues in yoga.

With a bit of practice it can be very easy to do your own yoga practice! Stay tuned for a future article on building a personal yoga practice. In the meantime, our Monday night yoga class (click here for schedule) with Rupel Pandya is a great step to having more yoga in your life.

It’s amazing what nutrition you can get simply from rice and vegetables. An excellent example of less is more.

Make healthier food choices

Beijing is brimming with food choices that span the entire spectrum of healthy nutrition. I looked for plant-based whole foods wherever possible – vegetables, fruits, legumes and grains and leaned towards dishes that were lightly seasoned and oiled (or even better unseasoned and un-oiled). That meant I was enjoying dishes such as millet congee, freshly made unsweetened hot soy milk, stir-fried vegetables and tofu, and plain white rice. On some days, I’d eat a meal of simply watermelon, Chinese Hami Gold melons, Chinese fresh dates, and mandarins / clementines. Eating whole foods helped me maintain steady energy levels and regular elimination. It also helped me ensure I was getting all the vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are so abundant in plant-based foods.

Staying active, eating well and getting regular Network Spinal Care are 3 of the ways I got the most out of my Beijing trip and stayed healthy and happy in the process. By having healthy practices that you can bring from your everyday life into your travel life, you too can enjoy your vacation and come back in optimal health. On my next blog post, I’ll talk about more healthy practices that are easy and simple to put into our vacations. Make your next vacation a healthy one!